I have a lot of this information in my build, but there's a lot of BS in my build as well and I know most people don't wanna read that shit. There's a lot of good pictures and information so I figured it was worth a separate thread, so here goes.

Execution:

I made a bit of a poor decision back in June due to naiveness and impatience. I was out at Pismo with some friends for Huckfest. We stayed much later than anticipated and the our departure was just bad timing. High tide, a 9 foot wind swell, and the insane amount of snowmelt this year made the Arroyo Grande Creek more than just a creek. The net-net of it was I ended up hydrolocking the motor in my Tacoma...bad.

I was fortunate enough to get towed off the beach by some friends. Five hours later, I got my truck started with nothing more than the basic hand tools I had in my truck. Literally MacGyvered some shit together, but I got it running. I didn't let it run for very long before realizing I had bigger problems then just getting the truck started. Judging by the oil leak and the gnarly audible knocking sounds from the bottom of the motor, I broke a connecting rod. I phoned a friend and my brother in law drove out early the next morning. I ended up renting a uhaul trailer to tow my Tacoma home.

I called my insurance company after I got home. Told them exactly what happened, and, since I didn't collide with anything, they said the damage would be covered by comprehensive. The truck got towed to a repair shop and the adjusters did their things. After it being in the shop for a week, I made the executive decision to do the repair work myself. I didn't want the shop to do the work because of the nuances with my truck that would just take too long to explain. That and the labor was ridiculous. I could put that money to use on far better things than labor.

Resurrection:

In the time the truck was getting appraised and adjusted, I was doing my own research. I found a COMPLETE used motor out of Colorado with only 37,000 miles on it. As soon as my insurance company called me and said they sent the check, I bought the motor and started disassembly. Armed with a stack of papers from the FSM and an impact wrench, the teardown was not nearly as difficult as one might think. Hell I've never replaced a motor in my life before, but the FSM was damn clear. I had most of the tools needed to do the swap. I borrowed an engine hoist and stand from a friend and fellow TWer. I only needed to buy an engine load leveler and a 12mm hex key allen socket (but that was for the front diff...more on that later).

I didn't realize exactly how fucked the motor was until I had it on the engine stand. Yeah, I broke a rod alright. Two to be exact. One blew a hole the size of my pinky clean through the side of the block and hence the oil leak. The other rod literally tore the crank cover like a piece of paper and almost punched a hole through the bottom of the pan. You would not believe the amount shit I found in the bottom of the pan. Believe it or not, I actually drove my truck from the street into the garage...on 4 cylinders.

With the old motor out and the new motor on its way, I took advantage of the situation and the excess "labor" money and decided to regear my diffs to 4.56's.

I ended up picking the motor up from the shipping terminal to save some money on home delivery. The new engine ended up being a great deal. Its super clean, carfax verified mileage, and the guys I got the motor from ended up changing a bunch of stuff on the engine before sending it out. Everything under the timing cover was brand new as well as the rear main seal. I bought a few other misc gaskets and seals, pilot bearing, and so on just cause it's a hell of a lot easier to change that stuff when the motor is out of the vehicle. I of course transferred my supercharger over. The engine I bought was from a prerunner so I also had to swap wiring harnesses and the oil pan from my old motor.

After some late nights, countless beers and swear words, and a new Transmission jack, the engine was back in.

It eventually started but had zero throttle response and would not stay running. It would run for a couple seconds and then die. I hooked up my scan tool and I threw 8 different check engine lights. And they were all over the damn place. TPS, MAF, Coolant temp. None of it made any sense to me.

I swapped throttle bodies with the one my new motor came with thinking maybe I fried the TPS with all the water I sucked in. Still, same problem. A little irritated, I walked away for a few minutes, came back and started looking things over. Found the number 1 plug on the ECU wasn't clicked in all the way. Pushed it in all the way, and, well....this was the second try:

Doing the engine work myself, I had some extra fun money. So I decided to put it to good use. I decided to ditch the midtravel kit up front and do the Total Chaos long travel kit to go with the LT rear I already have. No expense spared either. Coil bucket, camber tab, spindle and rear frame gussets. Spidertrax spacers to push out the rear to help compensate for the +7" wider front end. New black grill, headlights, blinkers, and devil horns. New high output alternator, new navi in the interior and of course, King coilovers. Only thing that I'm waiting now on are the King triple bypass secondary shocks. I have the shock hoops already, but I'm waiting on King to send out my bypasses before installing that bit. For now, I'm rolling without the secondaries.

Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I'm headed back out to Pismo this weekend, exaclty two months since the shit hit the fan.

I gotta hand it to you-this is impressive! Rep to you for the effort putting it here too. I have done quite a bit of this stuff in my day but if this happened to me now-I wouldn't have the nerve you did to do such epic work. lol I played that "2nd start" vid a few times now and I love how at the beginning you go "sighhhhhhh-ok" because you've been through the hardcore circuit with this and it was down to the moment...priceless and that engine sounded golden right from coming off the starter. Well done.

Pretty damn good job. What kind of auto experience did you have before this?

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I took auto shop in high school. Does that count?

Nothing professional. Both my parents were mechanics and they owned their own smog/auto repair shop though much of my childhood. My dad used to make me do tune ups on all the shitty GM motors that gave only enough clearance for a 12 year olds hands to fit to get to the spark plugs. But helping them just taught me to keep track of what bolts went where.

I've pretty much always done my own work/upgrades on my vehicles since I had a drivers license. It was out of necessity (I was poor). I've never removed an engine in my life before this ordeal. But as I said, the FSM was very descriptive. It was completley correct execpt for 1 wire which was just an engine ground on the oil pan. I know how to read and have an adequate amount of tools, so I decided to do it myself.

In the end I did lose a 14mm open end wrench though. Still not sure where that ended up.

I gotta hand it to you-this is impressive! Rep to you for the effort putting it here too. I have done quite a bit of this stuff in my day but if this happened to me now-I wouldn't have the nerve you did to do such epic work. lol I played that "2nd start" vid a few times now and I love how at the beginning you go "sighhhhhhh-ok" because you've been through the hardcore circuit with this and it was down to the moment...priceless and that engine sounded golden right from coming off the starter. Well done.

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Hell yeah. I was stoked when that thing fired up. It was like finally seeing the light at end of a very long dark tunnel.

How did your insurance pay for when you hydrolocked your engine off road?!? Shit I did that and I was 100% out of pocket. I got the part about you not hitting anything. My motor blew up 9k miles after I hydrolocked it on the way home from Target.

How did your insurance pay for when you hydrolocked your engine off road?!? Shit I did that and I was 100% out of pocket. I got the part about you not hitting anything. My motor blew up 9k miles after I hydrolocked it on the way home from Target.

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It wasn't considered "off road." I was in a California State Park and not in the OHV section. There's only one way in and one way out.